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Intellectual colonialism and national education systems

Article in XLinguae · January 2018

DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.02.27

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 Intellectual colonialism and national education systems

Svetlana A. Sharonova – Nina V. Trubnikova – Natalya S. Erokhova –

Helena A. Nazarova

DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.02.27

Abstract
The concept of intellectual colonialism has recently attracted much attention.
Initially, it arose on the basis of a rethinking of the educational processes in the
former African colonies of Britain, France, etc. and then acquired a new meaning as a
new form of colonization without involving seizure of territories. Further
globalization processes accelerated development of this phenomenon and expanded its
worldwide influence. Colonial subordination tactics may take various forms. In
African countries lacking a well-developed national system of education, intellectual
colonialism functions through the introduction of education in the language of the
former colonizers of this country. In Eastern Europe, Russia, which have been
historically characterized by highly-developed education systems, the effect of
intellectual colonialism is manifested in the destruction of these national systems and
their subordination to a unified global system rooted in the culture and principles of
particular countries (primarily the USA and the UK, which hold leading ranking
positions and concentrate financial flows). In countries with a highly-developed
economy and stable policy, such as Japan, intellectual colonialism undermines the
authority of national education systems through the advancement of world rankings.
Key words: colonialism, intellectual colonialism, global system of education,
national education

Introduction
1.1. The prehistory of intellectual colonialism
The social phenomenon of colonialism has deep historical roots. Starting from
Ancient Rome, colonialism implied various forms of the dependence of the rural
population. Here we shall refer to the phenomenon of "colonialism" as political,
economic and spiritual enslaving of the peoples of emerging countries by the socially
and economically developed states. According to H. Tahsin (2007), colonialism is a
political, economic and military strategy of influential states aimed at appropriating
the territories, human and material resources of weak societies. Thus, from the
beginning of XIII to the middle of XX the Europeans colonized Asian and African
regions while killing and exporting the indigenous people.
Quite apart, meanwhile, another type of colonialism was formed, the one which
implied obliterating cultural identity of the population in order to make sure that the
colonized countries should never reach the level of their economically developed
colonizers. That concerned the vast colonies of the British Empire which covered
nearly half of the globe; the colonies of France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands,
Germany, and Belgium on the territory of Africa, Asia, the Americas; the Japanese
colonies in Asia. After the 2nd World War, the rise of national-liberating strife
prompted the demise of the colonial system which was complete by the 1960-70ies.
The liquidation of the colonial system put an end to the territorial division of the
world. In 1960 the United Nations took steps to root out colonialism, however, the
ex-colonial powers took countermeasures to retain their influence on their former
colonies. That was the motive for creating the British Commonwealth by Great
Britain and the Francophone Federation by France. The United States joined the club
of colonial powers relatively late - that occurred in the period of the Cold War and
became known as American imperialism. If, initially the United States based their
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colonialist strategy on the economic subjugation of the counties, then, in the era of
neocolonialism, they dramatically changed it, beginning to establish American
hegemony over the cultures of third world countries, forming the so-called cultural
imperialism.

1.2. A new form of colonialism - intellectual colonialism

Analyzing the phenomenon of "intellectual colonialism" from the point of view of
politics and philosophy, Yan.Yu. Moiseenko (2017) refers to the theoreticians M.
Hardt and A. Negri (2000) who, in their academic work Empire, assert that the
traditional "imperialistic" colonialism with its compulsory establishment of parent
state institutions of power on the subordinate territories is being replaced by a new
version of colonialism - "empire" colonialism. They hold that this new Empire is
"devoid of a center or any territorial reference" (Hardt, Negri, 2000).
The concept of intellectual colonialism means cultural and intellectual enslavement of
the population. The police of intellectual colonialism are not only directed towards the
third world countries but are able to manipulate the cultures of developed countries as
well.
In the period of the end of the 20 century to the beginning of the XXI globalization
processes have promoted further development and intensification of cultural
imperialism. If, in earlier periods, only underdeveloped countries of the third world
were subjected to colonization, then, today, there is an hierarchy of cultures being
artificially created among developed countries too. In creating the European Union, it
tried to not only economically but also culturally withstand the pressure of the United
States. The Bologna process acted as an initiator of universalization of the educational
sphere of the member countries. It was to ensure high quality education in all the
states of the EU. On the one hand, it is an example of self-protection from intellectual
colonization on the part of the US; on the other - it has itself become a tool of creating
intellectual colonies. The model of the European Higher Education Area has been
accepted by the global community and started spreading onto all countries of the
world.
In her study of the reactions of Brazilian and German national higher education
systems to the global challenges, K. Damm (2015) quotes R. King (2011) who
stresses that globalization in the sphere of higher education is characterized by world
dominance of certain models and ideas (e.g., administrative reforms regarding new
public administration (NPM) which are distributed via social networks and normative
pressure (e.g., international ratings). According to R. King (2011), pushing these
models into national higher education systems is principally normative and originally
includes elements of voluntary acceptance and imitation. The more these models
acquire power and legitimacy through distribution, the higher the probability of their
acceptance becoming structurally obligatory and involuntary (King, 2011).
While analyzing the inner resistance of Indonesian higher education system to the
global challenges, K. Sunarto (2015) notes that Indonesian higher education has been
globalized for many decades. According to him, these processes were especially
accelerated in 1998 marked by the movement in support of the reform which put an
end to the 32-year old authoritarian rule. Since 1998, the new governments have
introduced a number of higher education reforms as a response to the challenges of
globalization. Within the framework of these reforms, the new governments have
ratified international and regional agreements (e.g., The Asian-Pacific Regional
Convention of accepting higher education qualifications; the convention of mutual
recognition; AFTA); they have introduced new laws and policies which include
governmental appeals to higher education institutions urging them to show more
initiative in becoming "World Class universities" (Royon, Rahwidiati, 2013).

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In their evaluation of the changes in Estonian higher education system, K.
Loogma and U. Meril (2015) draw attention to the fact of the hegemony of
neoliberalism in the Western discourse of the last 30 years. Applied to education
policy, realization of the principles of neoliberalism promotes free choice of school,
liberalization of education legislation, entrepreneurial model of school management,
decentralization of schools and increased freedom for schools in preparation of
training programs. On the other hand, neoliberal approach in education policy
increases standardization and subordination (Naumanen, Leppänen, Rinne, 2008)
which are supposed to counterbalance the de-centralization tendencies. The end of the
epoch of standardization and subordination and the beginning of the new epoch of
post-standardization were predicted by some characteristic signs (Hargreaves, 2008),
nevertheless, under the global-scale pressure towards increased unification,
intellectual colonization and standardization have deeply penetrated all the spheres of
human activity, including education (Autio, 2009; Autio, 2011).
According to E.V. Grunt (2017), in Russia, "the policy of "cultural imperialism" and
"intellectual colonialism" of the United States and the western countries has, in the
modern conditions, literally "swamped" the national higher education which results in
erosion of staff potential" (Grunt, 2017). Transferring of overseas experience to
Russian higher education institutions without taking into account the particularities of
the national higher education system leads to blurred boundaries of scientific
knowledge, formalized pedagogical activity, and its evaluation by controlling bodies.
Adhering to the principles of formal rationality and thus allowing quantitative
evaluation overwhelmingly prevail over qualitative undercuts the national education
system. The time that the faculty spends on preparing documentation support of the
educational process is comparable to the time spent on communication with students
in the classroom, at lectures and seminars. The faculty start prioritizing publication
requirements over educational-methodical and communicational ones as
the university, regardless its type or orientation aspires to strengthen its position in the
ratings.

1.3. Intellectual capital

Intellectual capital is a layer of people commanding the knowledge which is able to
strengthen the country's economic indicators, ensure its political stability. However,
applying knowledge requires a suitable cultural medium in which people are ready
and willing to collaborate with each other. In the light of neoliberal principles of
global education, it is, on the one hand, necessary to respect the rights of the
individual in an open-minded society - namely, the person's right to choose a
university to continue education. On the other hand, national education systems are
obliged to maintain national cultural traditions. Apart from moral and ethical
standards of behavior, the latter include specifics of the historically formed economic
relations and scientific views. The importance of learning and generating new
knowledge means the development of intellectual capital either within the framework
of the national culture or abroad.
Nevertheless, in combination with the growth of globalization, today's higher
education has stepped beyond the national boundaries and received greater freedom
and independence from traditional state requirements. This has allowed to reconsider
traditional views on the human rights in which the values of a globalized society.l
have become dominant. In this context, individual free choice is highly conditional,
since it is maneuvered by international structures and values, shaped by western
specialists. National interests are practically left out of consideration - and, it is if at
some point those clash with the promoted standards that the danger of intellectual
colonization becomes real.
M.Á. Morales (2007) notes an interesting paradoxical tendency: leaning on
globalization-dictated test standards, organizations search for better practices around
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the world completely overlooking the treasure of knowledge and know-how right
under their noses, in the bright minds of their own people which conform to the
unique, labor activity structures, shaped for centuries by the specifics of history-
determined commitments. The paradox of globalization is that, ironically, it is much
easier to compare what you have with what the outer world makes compulsory and
imposes on you than to reasonably prove the advantages of your own achievements
and practices to the world which is indifferent to them.

Materials and Methodology

2.1. Methodological bases of studying intellectual colonialism
From the point of view of sociology of education, there are several scientific concepts
which can serve as a theoretical background of researching intellectual colonialism.
Firstly, it is the law of "objectivizing" knowledge into an ideology which, in the
global context, means domination of the ideology maintained in the universities of the
countries leading on the global market. This ideology forms economic and political
values which do not take national interests into account and may, moreover,
contradict them (ideas of K. Mannheim).
Secondly, it is the Marxist concept of the theory of social reproduction put forward by
L. Althusser who has proved that educational institutions are a part of the state
ideological apparatus which helps reproduce the leading ideology through the
educational plan.
Analyzing works in sociology of education, F.L. Pincus (2002) revealed the fact that
property and control over large capitals on the part of the privileged social layers is, to
a great extent, based on variations of the noneducational factor - for instance, on
inheritance. In the conditions of globalization, global education inculcates the
ideology of the privileged layers who control financial, economic and political
resources.
Thirdly, it is the law of reproduction of the culture of the educational institution
according to which, regardless of the student's cultural background, in the process of
studying he assimilates the ethical, moral and ideological norms taught by this
particular university - in our case, by this particular global system of higher education
(ideas of P. Bourdieu).
Fourthly, it is the law of constructing reality which is based on the psychology of
perception of the world, i.e. how we see the world, how we create and project it (ideas
of A. Shütz, P. Berger, and T. Luckmann). In this case, ideology imposed by the
global society transforms national ideology, gradually erasing its specifics and
uniqueness which, for the affected states, leads to a risk of intellectual dependence.

Research and Discussion

3.1. Tactics of colonial subjugation
For African countries where there was no established national education systems,
these tactics included developing local education system in the former colonizer's
language paired with the policy of restraining and limiting this development to keep it
on the level of secondary vocational training. S.H. Alatas (2000) has singled out the
main traits characteristic of any imperialism, including intellectual one: exploitation,
guarding, conformity, secondary role, intellectual rationalization, imperialistic rulers.
He notes that, in the past, training colonial populations in certain technical spheres
was deemed useful for the imperialistic governments. As a continuation of this policy
in the modern underdeveloped regions including Malaysia and Singapore, dependence
in the sphere of education was formed. "If you want to get a good degree you must
enter European or American universities. If you want to know something you must
read their books. This idea of dependence through intellectual guarding was accepted
by default. It was assumed that people who lived in those territories knew less than
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those who lived in the West. Likewise, before, it had been assumed that the colonies
were unable to support themselves and could not be granted independence because, if
they started self-governing, they would ruin the country. Underdeveloped countries
had no technical know-hows and thus could not ensure their economies' development.
Now, in the context of intellectual colonialism, they have no intellectual know-hows.
Hence the necessity of a form of indirect guarding" (Alatas, 2000).
The practice of teaching various disciplines in African universities by RUDN alumni
in the 70-80s confirms the words of S.H. Atalas (2000). Depending on whose colony a
country had been, the entire learning process was organized to mimic that in
universities of the colonizer (Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain etc.). All the
textbooks were used in the languages of these countries and, correspondingly, were
written by western authors and published in the West.
As for other traits of imperialism, exploitation means collecting traditional knowledge
from the semi-literate population with the purpose of subsequent processing and
publishing the information abroad, making it property of the general public, while
depriving the native carriers of this knowledge of economic dividends.
Conformity stands for assimilation of the behavioral culture in the image and likeness
of the culture of the dominating country.
Secondary role in relation to the dominating countries is assigned the subjugated
societies in all the spheres of popular activity, including the national education system
system.
Intellectual rationalization is an attempt to explain imperialism as a necessary step in
the progress of humanity, and the mission of imperialistic power - as civilizing people
by making them its subject. The entire education system of the dependent countries
works for this ideology.
Imperialistic rulers stands for more often than not mediocre people who used to
be appointed governors in the dependent countries. Speaking of Malaysia and
Singapore, S.H. Atalas (2000) quotes a civil servant Thomson as remarking that many
of those who came from England were not exactly the cream of the British society.
People who went to work in the colonies were not able to find a job in England and, if
the had found one, they would have not achieved any career growth as they would
have not been able to do the work on the appropriate level. This, among other
instances, concerns today's visiting faculty members of national universities.
Tactics of intellectual colonization for Eastern European countries and Russia where
there has always been a historically determined, developed national education system,
consisted of destroying the national systems and subjecting them to the uniform
global system based on on the culture and principles of certain countries (primarily
US and Britain which lead in the ratings and concentrate financial streams in the
sphere of education). All the former USSR republics unconditionally adopted the
Bologna system in the most rigid forms while overlooking the fact that the suggested
forms are of a framework nature. The developed Scandinavian countries, on the
contrary, decided not to destroy their national systems. Instead, they made use of that
same principle of the framework and presented evidence of conformity of their
national education levels to the standards suggested by the Bologna Process.
For countries with a highly developed economy and stable politics like Japan,
colonization tactics involve undermining the authority of the national education
system through the global ratings. Japanese universities are primarily evaluated on the
level of the Asian Pacific region where they do not occupy the highest positions. For
example, according to the Times Higher Education rating, The University of Tokyo
(Japan) occupies the 1st place in the Asia Rank, while in the World Rank it is on the
23rd; according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the same university holds the 3rd
place in the Asia Rank and the 31st in the World Rank. Similarly,
in the Times Higher Education rating, University of Tokyo (Japan) holds the 7th place
in the Asia Rank and the 52nd in theWorldRank, while in the database
342
of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) it holds the 5th place in the Asia Rank and the 36th in
the World Rank. According to Times Higher Education, Tsukuba University (Japan)
does not enter the top 10 universities of the Asia Rank, while
according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), it occupies the 9th place in the Asia Rank.
Besides, the Japanese government is not so much concerned about these ratings being
perceived as an index of the current academic and scientific potential of the Japanese
universities, as about their being interpreted as a kind of evaluation of the national
power and social viability of the state.
Professor Yukimasa Hayata (The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shinbun (http://ww-
w.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/education/20141127.html) notes that the Japanese
government has constitutionally guaranteed autonomous freedoms to the Japanese
universities in regards to education and research. However, forced to compete on the
education services market based on the freedom of economic activity, the Japanese
universities have to reconsider these principles of autonomy. They are obliged to meet
the international requirements thus losing their independence. They must be regularly
accountable to the international organizations (according to whose databases
international ratings are drawn up) about improvements in social and economic
indicators of the university's development; about fulfilling the students' requirements;
about maintaining the university's uniqueness reflected in its mission; they must
systematically submit internal quality evaluations etc. The Japanese government, in its
turn, has to work out policies of gifted students’ selection; of recruiting foreign
specialists to ensure high professionalism which will guarantee growth and economic
recovery of the Japanese society.
L.A. Vasilenko (2017) stresses that the essence of intellectual colonialism is the
combination of bi-directional processes. On the one hand, withdrawal of finances for
extracting raw materials is arranged through virtualization of financial flows. On the
other hand, intellectual resources are pumped out by means of arranging the global
market of intellectual resources. The latter includes two groups of mechanisms:
1. The group of direct pumping out of intellectual resources to the territory of the
metropolitan power:
a) systems of competitive relations paired with corruptogenic rating systems,
b) arranged "brain drain" and directed streams of intellectual migration, i.e., direct
withdrawal of human capital,
c) arranged scientific research works directly on the colonial territories at the expense
of low value of intellectual workers in the colonized countries,
d) low-cost buying up of inventions, technical innovations, and patents by making use
of legal illiteracy of the population as regards drawing up invention patents on the
international level; intellectual property on the territory of the metropolitan state is,
meanwhile, strictly protected.
The group of mechanisms aimed at lowering the qualitative level of human capital on
the neocolonial territory includes:
a) established inequality on the global market of intellectual resources,
b) instruments of lowering the level of education,
c) technologies aimed at cultural degradation of the neocolonial population,
d) flexible instruments of manipulating collective consciousness, including powerful
support of mass media.
Intellectual colonization is manifested in the psychological pressure applied by global
professional societies orienting young people to career growth. A lot of fast-and -
successful-career-growth-orienting literature is released domestically and abroad, e.g.:
Stress-Free Career by N.V. Samoukina, Successful Professional Career by Kornienko
O.Y., The Success Process Handbook by Tony Fielek etc.
K. Caprino (2011) calls these strategical reference points "the myth of career
bliss". She argues that these strategies are deceitful and harmful, leading people away
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from realizing the necessity of taking tough action to eliminate the root causes which
hinder life strategy and career growth.
According to A.V. Merenkov (2017), such illusions allow to, firstly, maintain the
stability of the system in which only a small part of individuals quickly climbs the
career ladder, usually with the aid of relations and acquaintances. Secondly, they
allow to reproduce and intellectually reinforce the hierarchical relations of the
economic and political elite by constantly urging those who are capable of scientific
discoveries, technological innovations, and theories of social transformations to do
active work in favor of the minority who exploits their talent to maintain its own
preponderant position. The majority of those who constitute the main part of this
disguised system of intellectual colonialism are not aware of its existence.

3.2. Factors overtly or latently affecting formation of intellectual colonization

International ratings create conditions of universalization and "cosmopolitanization"
of the scientific thought - one of them is mandatory publications in the world leading
journals.
Under the influence of the world ratings, the politics conducted by the ministry of
education and science in the last ten years has led, according to V.V. Petrov (2017), to
a change in the structure of Russian science. This is manifested in the state's aspiration
to transfer scientific research from the sector of science to education (similarly to the
western models of development). During the last 13 years, the amount of scientific-
research institutions has practically halved (from 2686 in 2000 to 1719 in 2013).
Simultaneously, the amount of higher education institutions conducting scientific
research has doubled (390 and 671 respectively). It is, however, impossible to blindly
copy foreign schemes and specimens in order to plant them in the Russian soil - torn
out of the socio-cultural context, even the best models which have shown their
efficiency in the conditions of western societies, prove unworkable in the Russian
realia. Thus, in October 2015, having drawn intermediate results of the 5-100-2020
program created in 2012, according to which five Russian universities are supposed to
enter the world top 100 education ratings by 2012, president of Higher School of
Economics Yaroslav Kuzminov admitted that by 2020 only MSU would be able to
enter the world top 100, while the rest "stand practically no chance".
In this connection, the higher education institutions taking part in this program were
urged to focus on the world sectoral ratings - it turned out that there, the position of
Russian higher education establishments was much higher.
Financial dependence of the systems of higher education on the global leaders means
investment flows into scientific projects (dependence on the international grants, as
not all economies are able to compete with the economically developed countries).
This became especially relevant in 1995, after the WTO had adopted the General
Agreement on Trade in Service, where university education was positioned as a
service subject to the rules of free trade. This agreement is also aimed at motivating
strategical investments in order to create a favorable investment climate for
universities. According to this treaty, in the conditions of globalized university
education, evaluation of granted education services acts as a guarantee of economic
freedom and receiving investments in higher education. This evaluation is effected on
the basis of the rules established by the international structures. This is the clause that
acts as the focus for distributing strategical investments among the developed
countries (Alatas, 2000).
Universalization of the higher education in the conditions of intellectual imperialism
is effected in a dichotomous mode: enforcement of the principle of the "equal, not
differing" (McLennan, 1989); the prestige of being acknowledged by the global
society on the background of the threat to academic independence and integrity;
tolerance and respect for different cultures and religions ensuring equality of
possibilities, however, some forms of this relativism - those like extremism and
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religious fundamentalism turn out to be incompatible with the main policy;
contradictions in the scientific circles between freedom of speech and thought and
concrete professionally relevant skills, values and knowledge (Harris, Helen, 2004).
Flexible, movable academic plans requiring constant renewal of disciplines
(destroying the logic of assimilation of scientific information as well as the principle
of fundamental knowledge; forming informational thinking).
Canadian researchers A. Harris and M.F. Helen (2004) studied colonization through
pedagogy, methods, educational programs and knowledge in order to reveal the
potential for collaboration between developing and developed countries in generating
knowledge for the former. They analyzed a five-year experiment of supposedly
liberating learning methods conducted in African, Asian and Caribbean countries. The
research of realization of the international, youth-oriented Commonwealth diploma
conferring project (DYD) has shown that the supposed architecture of pedagogical
relationship based on P. Freire's (1979) principles of pedagogy must, with the aid of
intellectual and conceptual instruments, develop the ability to withstand the processes
of intellectual colonization (Freire, 1970). As stipulated in the contract concluded on
admission to the educational institution, students were asked to specify their own
learning expectations - acquiring knowledge through conversation with the
supervisors. According to P. Freire (1970) и D. Kolb (1984), the supervisors are
assigned the role of assistants in learning, not conveyors of knowledge. However,
faced with reality, these pedagogical ideals proved to manifest themselves in other
ways. While in societies where the authorities do not distance themselves from the
people, the liberating education model does reinforce resistance to colonization, in
societies where the authorities are more distanced, supervisors cannot act as either
intermediaries, or conveyors of knowledge, because they are perceived as "gurus who
pass on their personal wisdom" (Hofstede, 1991). In this contest, as noted by A.
Harris and M.F. Helen (2004), engaging the learner into generating knowledge by
means of dialogue is impossible. The researchers conclude that the supposedly
liberating model is applied to societies where its principles prove inapplicable, and,
instead of educating the learners, it artificially imposes the culturally incompatible
"liberation" (Freire, 1970). However, researchers note that in developed countries,
too, the dialogue learning model stipulated in the admission contract and supposed to
"cultivate independent, self-assertive students seeking opportunities to learn in order
to demonstrate their academic and professional development" (Notley, 1999), is
confronted with considerable resistance on the part of the students.
Thus, J. Atherton's (2004) studies of the contract system in Britain showed that the
students tended to strongly resist the approach, their typical feedback sounding as
"Just tell us what to do!"
Basing his conclusions on the opinions of some students and supervisors, C. Christian
revealed an incompatibility between this concept of learning and the Eastern
culture (as quoted in Harris, Helen, 2004). A. Harris and M.F. Helen (2004) observe
that, taking into account their previous experience, many students are not prepared to
take upon themselves responsibility for their own learning in the context of the
liberating model.
Cultural cosmopolitanism is formed due to several factors. One of them is studying
mostly in English which changes the bases of thinking. Educational practice is
dominated by overseas-published textbooks written by leading authors, recognized by
the global scientific community, carrying the globally admitted ideology in evaluating
facts. According to R. Philipson, global domination of the English language leads to
formation of a language hierarchy provoking extinction of other languages and
deepening the global inequality.
N.G. Popova (2017) has singled out traits of using the English language for
colonization purposes. Those can be justly applied in the analysis of scientific
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communication as well. One of the traits is defined as lack of alternative, that is, being
forced to learn English. Indeed, in science today (practically around the globe),
knowledge of English has become not only the token of career growth, but also of
simply retaining one's position because, in order to prolong his contract, a scholar or
scientist must submit a list of publications in international databases. In other words,
one could talk about an absence of free choice regarding the form of presentation of
results of intellectual activity. The second trait of a colonizer-language is ousting
other languages from the territory of its domination. Sadly, adoption by the Russian
ruling elites of the "Bologna" course has led to doing away with teaching other
foreign languages apart from English. German and French, formerly traditional for
Russian education, are not anymore studied in Russian graduate
schools (Popova, Kuznetsova, 2016).
To the best of the author's knowledge, a similar situation has formed in the
educational systems around the globe. Hence follows the third trait - using the
colonizer-language for ideological purposes, with it being forced into application on
the peripheries to serve the political and economic interests of the "center". A good
example is English publishing business the profitability of which is comparable to that
of high-tech innovation companies. Thus, the profit of Elsevier publishing house
amounted to 37% in 2014; that of Springer - to 35% - compared to, e.g., BMW – 10%
и Apple – 29% (Holcomb, 2015). In 2016, the company Thomas Reuters announced
the sale of the department in charge of presenting information in the scientific field;
the cost of the deal amounted to the record 3,35 million dollars. In other words, we
look at establishing financial oligarchies in the sphere e scientific publications, while
any financial oligarchy inevitably subdues the means of ideological influence on the
masses (Popova, 2017).
In his article "Intellectual Imperialism: Concept, Features, Problems", S.H. Alatas
(2000) discusses the notion of superiority of the dominion-states fixated in the minds
of the former colonies' populations. There is a wide-spread belief that valuable
knowledge only comes from the West, and good books are only written in Western
countries. The West, on the other hand, is not in the least interested in the ideas of
Asian economists and philosophers. The very idea that Asian political scientists have
contributed to the development of political science sounds absurd to their western
counterparts.
According to S.H. Alatas (2000), very few Malaysian students are interested in
studying Asian thinkers of the past. They would rather read Plato, Aristotle,
Machiavelli and other modern western thinkers while ignoring Van An Shih, Ibn
Khaldun, Risalah, Nehru. This choice is made subconsciously, proceeding from the
guideline that nothing useful can be derived from the works of Asian, or other non-
western thinkers. These inherited notions belong to the past, they are dust of history, -
although the decision to do so is prompted by the sense of inadequacy caused by
ignorance of one's own traditions.
In his work, S.H. Alatas (2000) cites another characteristic effect of intellectual
imperialism - intellectual imitation. Thus, describing historical events, western
scholars lean on the ideology of their own states when evaluating those. As an
illustration, S.H. Atalas (2000) cites the history of Singapore written by Thomas S.
Raffles, a British statesman who served in a colonial administrative office. He was
mostly concerned with the intrigue in which he was involved instead of covering the
central matters, instrumental in the country's development. Following this tradition,
modern Singapore historians choose subjects and methods outlined by the European
scholars, instead of exploring topics based on the national knowledge of
historiography. However, if a Singapore scholar attempts to go beyond the framework
adopted by the western scientific community, there rises a question: who will read
him, and where will he be published? (Alatas, 2000)

346
Another factor of forming cultural cosmopolitanism is the culture of the universities
reproduced by the students and "cosmopolitizing" them. Grounding this statement one
could cite the research of the realization of the international Commonwealth youth-
oriented diploma-conferring program (DYD), where the educational program and
accompanying published materials were elaborated by developed countries' scholars.
The researchers noted that the topic of colonization within the framework of
educational practice is relevant here - not because certain countries dominate, but
because the values transmitted by the academic community within the framework of
the Commonwealth program belong to the model of democracy and social justice
originating from the western society. Such blind adherence to a uniform model of
democracy, freedom, and equality leaves no room for any prospects (Harris, Helen,
2004).
Along the entire course of DYD studies, the students regularly correlate the
international texts with their national, regional context. It is important that the central
place in the Commonwealth DYD program is occupied by the concept of community
as family. These values are inculcated in the system of distributing authority in the
process of the student-supervisor correlation.
Internet studies. Distance learning today cannot anymore be perceived as just a
geographical distance between the student and teacher. Practice compliments the
geographical principle with a cultural and emotional distance which may have
different pedagogical consequences. A. Harris and M.F. Helen (2004) note, for
instance, that distance DYD education is effected in English regardless the geography
of learning. This may clash with the culture, language, and nature of the learners'
emotions (Harris, Helen, 2004).
Online education in Russia is especially heavily involved in the process of
globalization and standardization.
Nevertheless, the leading Russian higher education institutions have succeeded in
uniting with the purpose of creating a unique system of online education where the
courses are available free of charge, and without formal prerequisites to the basic
education level. The platform was created in 2015 by the "National Platform of Open
Education" Association founded by the leading universities - MSU, SPbU, SPbSU,
NUST "MISiS", NRU "HSE", MFTI, UrFU and ITMO. The total amount of courses
hosted by the National Platform of Open Education in 2017 amounted to 140; the
number of registered listeners approached 150 thousand persons, while on average
one listener subscribes to 2-3 courses. The Internet site of the Platform is to be found
at openedu.ru .
Replacing the phenomenon of "knowledge" with that of "information". As has already
been pointed out, modern intellectual colonialism is, unlike the imperialistic
colonialism of XIX- XX, realized in a new version - that of imperial colonialism.
According to M. Hardt and A. Negri, the Empire exercises «governance» within its
subservient space, indefinitely mixing the identities of once sovereign concepts,
forming flexible, loose hierarchies, thus modeling a brand new system of coordinates,
convenient for itself. It is "information" that has become the instrument of such a
"clever" steering in the global world. Its value is rated above other forms of
knowledge, while informational exchange has simply become a universal asset and
consumers' item (Hardt, Negri, 2000).
Intellectual capital is formed by knowledge kept in people's heads and no modern
means of conserving knowledge like the Internet can guarantee preservation of these
treasures, as only the human mind is able to determine their value thus lowering the
probability of losing this or that bit of knowledge. The stress modern higher education
puts on generating new knowledge is often associated with the difficulty of
transforming this knowledge into concrete actions. Putting information at the head of
the bases of modern society we expose ourselves to an informational boom
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(informational oversaturation due to an excess of redundant and useless information),
while suffering from the increasingly acutely felt lack of knowledge. In the
educational processes, transferring emphasis from receiving knowledge to the skill of
working with information is promoted by formalizing evaluation of the student's as
well as the supervisor's work. Drawn into the race for a good mark, the student is
often not so much concerned with the real benefits of learning the subject for his
future professional activity as with the number of points earning which will allow him
to slip through the finals. A Russian professor's annual teaching load amounts to over
900 hours. Besides that, the core quantitative indicator of his work includes
publishing activity, quotations rating, theses defending. As a rule, the professor has to
attend to these tasks out of duty, often at the expense of his educational, pedagogical
activity. The quality of research work suffers too, as the topics do not depend on the
teaching researcher's real scientific interests but on the interests of the journals and the
current problematic zones dictated by the grants. Thus, for both, students and
teachers, the fundamentalism of knowledge is replaced with virtuoso information
juggling.

Conclusion
Colonization problems are closely connected with establishment of cultural
imperialism. Traditionally, these two social phenomena are associated with
underdeveloped countries. However, intensive globalization processes have changed
the principles of space perception. Imperialism is the result of an alliance of several
countries which reshape the world in their own favor. A highly developed economy
and prosperity of certain states cannot safeguard against being subjugated by this
alliance.
Russian science and education which have held a prominent position in the world
hierarchy since the times of the USSR aspire to preserve and augment their influence
on the science and education market. It is clear that reaching this goal requires
integration of Russian national system into the global educational system as well as
overcoming the deficit of pragmatic-practical elements of education. That is why, for
Russia, joining the Bologna agreements is a logical step toward this integration.
However, if, for the European Union states, creating a uniform educational platform is
an objective measure, then, for Russia, which doesn't form part of this economic and
political alliance, the principles of unification should not be rigid, and the
standardization - overwhelming. There is a threat of losing competitive advantages of
the national education system without which the attraction of Russia as an exporter of
educational services may considerably diminish. Moreover, unfolding of certain
scenarios which are already underway may result in Russia's becoming an
"intellectual colony" delivering European-Union-standard trained specialists
overseas.
Exploring the problems of intellectual colonialism one becomes aware of the fact that
the first scholars to have started discussing this phenomenon were representatives of
the regions which had once been colonies of the western states.
The middle of the 20th century is marked by the processes known as neocolonialism.
Breaking free from the political yoke has awakened the scientific thought of the
former colonies. Thanks to the researchers from those regions, these problematics
have contributed to the scholarly heritage and served as a background for analysis of
the processes marking the beginning of the 21st century.
The author of this article attempts to show how much the revealed features and
particularities of intellectual colonialism and the resulting intellectual colonization
described by the researchers from underdeveloped countries are reflected in the
modern realia of the countries which consider themselves developed.
In this context, studying modern higher education acquires a new meaning and gives a
new dimension to theoretical and empirical research. There emerges a new thematic
348
block for scholarly discussion. The threat of intellectual colonialism does not only
mean economic, political and cultural subjugation. It leads to the colonized states'
losing their national identity, as it reinforces global cultural "cosmopolitanization"
processes and prompts gradual extinction of non-resisting nation-cultures.

Acknowledgements
The publication has been prepared with the support of the “RUDN University
Program 5-100”.

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Assoc. Prof. Svetlana A. Sharonova, Doctor of Sociology

Deputy of the Director for Research of the Institute of Foreign Languages
RUDN University (Peoples' Friendship University of Russia)
6 Miklukho-Malkaya Str.
117198 Moscow
Russia
s_sharonova@mail.ru

Assoc. Prof. Nina V. Trubnikova, PhD in Philosophy

Chair of Department of Advertising and Business Communication
RUDN University (Peoples' Friendship University of Russia)
6 Miklukho-Malkaya Str.
117198 Moscow
Russia
ninavadimovna@mail.ru

Assoc. Prof. Natalya S. Erokhova, PhD in History

Chief Specialist for Scientific and Innovation Development
350
 of the Institute of Foreign Languages
RUDN University (Peoples' Friendship University of Russia)
6 Miklukho-Malkaya Str.
117198 Moscow
Russia
erokhovanat@gmail.com

Assoc. Prof. Helena A. Nazarova, Doctor of Sociology

Department of Public Relations and Media Policy
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy
and Public Administration
84, Prospect Vernadskogo
119606 Moscow
Russia
helena_nazarova@mail.ru

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